How do I list the maiden and the "family" name when searching my female relatives? Or does it really matter in which order they are put down? When I am looking in the different web sites it seems that the female relatives become ghosts, and almost impossible to find.

Very few of the sources indexed here include both married and maiden surnames for women. Almost always, there is only one surname, and it is not specified whether this is the married or maiden surname (although, language-specific suffixes might be an indicator). Exceptions -- sources in which entries with both surnames are not rare -- include the Krakow Calendars (residential sections), Polish medical directories, and school sources (teacher sections). A negligible percentage of women's entries in business directories include both surnames (and business directories tend to list few women at all).

I recommend using only one surname in a search. If you are interested in the exceptions above, this is still a good recommendation, but you might also try a search with both surnames if both are very common (order does not matter). For the Krakow Calendars, besides finding women with both surnames listed, this can also find entries mentioning both husband and wife, each with one surname. Not all Krakow Calendar residential entries list both husband and wife, though, or wives' maiden names.